October 6, 192 1] 



NATURE 



179 



Indeed, the green flash is often accompanied by 

 strongly deformed images of the setting or the rising 

 sun. Dr. Braak concludes that the green flash may 

 be observed most frequently with a strongly notched 

 limb of the sun. The occurrence of the distinct dip 

 of the horizon at the time of observation of the green 

 colouring of the surf agrees fairly well with these 

 views. S. W. VissER. 



Weltevreden Observatory, Java, August i6. 



Scientific Publication. 



In Nature of September S, p. 41, Dr. Brierley refers 

 to a sore point of modern scientific workers, viz, the 

 difficulties of scientific publication, and brings forward 

 some, to use his own expression, "revolutionary" 

 suggestions for overcoming these difficulties. I am 

 fully convinced that Dr. Brierley 's proposal to combat 

 this evil by abandoning the practice of publishing 

 in full works of scientific merit, deleting technical por- 

 tions, and eliminating plates, and substituting for them 

 summaries for the convenience of the "general scien- 

 tific public," would prove to be a great hindrance to 

 scientific progress if adopted. 



Dr. Brierley 's arguments for the adoption of this 

 course are : (i) that the majority of papers have no 

 permanent value in the advancement of science, and 

 (2) that the special articles are not intelligible to 

 workers in other branches of the same science. 



It is very difficult to judge the value of scientific 

 publications, and still more difficult to predict their 

 possible value in the future. Mendel's paper, for in- 

 stance, at the time of its publication in 1865, escaped 

 notice, and could be termed " of no permanent value " 

 by his contemporaries, but, as we know, it was " dis- 

 covered " about twenty years later, and proved to be 

 the foundation of the new doctrine of heredity. The 

 truism that all scientific works, whether great or 

 small, are the foundation on which the building of 

 science is constructed stands good here. 



It is highly important that all works should be pub- 

 lished in full for the benefit of specialists all over the 

 world, and not in " popular " form for the general 

 scientific public, which will always find what it wants 

 in general treatises and summaries. This would be 

 impossible if, as Dr. Brierley suggests, the original 

 memoirs were stored "in a kind of Somerset House 

 for scientific records." Indeed, this would take us 

 back to the Middle Ages. 



The difficulties of scientific publication, however, are 

 real, and I think that instead of jaire bonne mine a 

 maiivais jeu, as Dr. Brierley suggests, we should do 

 our utmost to save the position and apply to the State 

 for subsidy. We can surely afford to save our scien- 

 tific literature, taking into account that scientific 

 papers published in the whole countrv during one vear 

 are but a fraction of what is published dailv in' the 

 Press in London alone. Cecil A. Hoare. 



Behaviour in Lizards. 



We kept here this summer two common lizards 

 (Lacerta vivipara), one a very active male, the other 

 a female which was much less active because she was 

 soon to give birth to a litter of voung. One day I 

 turned a batch of earwigs into the lizards' bowl, and 

 a vigorous hunt ensued-. When a lizard seizes anv 

 sort of prey it shakes it violently and repeatedly before 

 swallowing it, thus incidentally 'advertising its success. 

 At one moment it happened that the female was 

 worn-ing an earuig when the male had none. He 

 darted^ across and tried to snatch her earwig from 



NO. 2710, VOL. 108] 



her. She eluded him that time, but a few seconds 

 later he tried again and succeeded. She made no 

 attempt to get the earwig back; soon after he had 

 swallowed it, however, she pounced on him and bit 

 his elbow, tearing off a small piece of skin. 



This was remarkable enough, since at all ordinary 

 times these lizards never showed any sign of resent- 

 ment — when, for example, one of them spread itself 

 over the other in competing for a patch of sunlight. 

 But about two minutes later something happened 

 which surprised me still more. The female sighted 

 an earwig sheltering half under a stone. Seeing the 

 quick, purposeful turn of her head, the male ran up 

 on to the stone and stood waiting. Neither moved 

 for some seconds ; then with a dart the female seized 

 the male by the snout and held him for two or three 

 seconds in "spite of his struggles. The moment he 

 freed himself she pounced on the earwig (which had 

 not moved), and went through the usual actions of 

 worrying, champing, and swallowing without further 

 interference from the male. 



On a cold day our lizards were scarcely more lively 

 than newts. Temperature made al! the difference to 

 them. After half an hour of hot sunshine the male 

 was as active and alert as a terrier; he would leap 

 at flies and catch them in the air. This episode with 

 the earwigs happened on a hot day, but even so it 

 seemed to imply cerebral processes which one scarcely 

 expects to find in such an animal as this small lizard. 



E. Leonard Gill. 



Hancock Museum, Barras Bridge, 

 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, September 28. 



Breeding Periods of Newt and Slow-worm. 



On September 27, when examining a ditch-pool 

 which used to produce Hydra, I found a number of 

 larvae of the common newt varying in size from 

 II to 20 mm., the smaller two-legged, probably less 

 than two weeks old, the larger more advanced, with 

 well-grown hind-legs. 



The pool in question was dried up during the early 

 summer, and until half an inch of rain on July 15 

 and 16 thoroughly wetted the ditches no newts could 

 have bred there, although they were breeding in a 

 deep quarry-hole within a hundred yards. We 

 regularly obtain newt larvae in July for class purposes, 

 but the end of September seems unduly late. 



Three possible explanations suggest themselves : — 

 (i) The old newts in the locality have bred twice, 

 (2) the spring-born newts have bred in late summer, 

 or (3) newts belonging to the place in question have 

 been able to hold up their spawn until favourable 

 conditions occurred, which did not happen until the 

 third week in July. 



It would be interesting to have the observations of 

 other naturalists on late breeding. 



Last year, when the weather conditions were very 

 different, slow-worms were late in breeding, gravid 

 females occurring in the last week in September and 

 newlv hatched young in the second week in October. 



Richard Elmhirst. 



Keppel, Millport, September 29. 



The Highest inhabited House. 



I SHOULD very much doubt the accuracy of the 

 statement in Nature of September 15, p. 78, that a 

 dwelling at 17,100 feet in the Andes is the highest 

 inhabited house in the world. I feel confident that 

 this can be claimed to be the case in the Himalayas, 

 probably in the Karakoram or Ladak chains in the 



